Editor's Note: Welcome to Reality Check, a feature for RCR Wireless News' new weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile content industry to give their insights into the marketplace. In the coming weeks...
Verizon Wireless restructured its pricing plans, adding a half-dozen new "premium" plans for data-hungry consumers.The plan restructuring now provides for three levels of options for individual plans: "basic," "select" and "premium." The "basic" plans begin at $40 per month for 450 anytime calling minutes....
House Commerce Committee leaders wrote the heads of the Department of Commerce and the Office of Management and Budget requesting by the end of next week the first progress report on implementation of a 2004 law that streamlined reimbursement of federal agencies whose communications...
Madison Dearborn Partners L.L.C. is among a group of investors engineering the $48.5 billion purchase of BCE Inc., Canada's biggest phone company, in the largest buyout ever. Madison Dearborn Partners will get a 9% stake, valued at about $4.4 billion, as it chalks up...
It hasn't taken long for mobile broadcast TV provider MediaFLO USA Inc. to scoop up exclusive premieres since its March launch. Last Friday the company broadcast the mobile premiere of MTV's "Super Sweet 16: The Movie" and today it announced a full line-up of...
AT&T Mobility saw a few bumps in activations with the massive demand for the Apple Inc. iPhone, but analysts estimated that eager customers snapped up between 500,000 and 700,000 of the devices during its high-profile opening weekend-putting the device well on its way to...
Shares of Local.com shot skyward after the online search company said it received a patent for ad-supported mobile search.The Irvine, Calif.-based outfit said the patent addresses "the method of responding to enhanced directory assistance" including voice- and text-based searches from wireless handsets. The patent...
Sprint Nextel Corp. announced it sold its Mobitex subsidiary, Velocita Wireless L.P., to United Wireless Holdings Inc. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.Velocita Wireless operates a nationwide Mobitex wireless data network covering 93% of the U.S. business population. The slow-speed network supports data...
Global Tower Partners, which boasts 2,500 wireless communications towers and more than 4,600 rooftop sites, has been sold for $1.4 billion.GTP owner The Blackstone Group sold the wireless tower operator to a consortium led by Macquarie Infrastructure Partners and Macquarie Communications Infrastructure Group.GTP generates...
AT&T Inc. said it will acquire regional carrier Dobson Communications Corp. for about $2.8 billion.Dobson serves more than 60 rural and suburban markets in 17 states in the Midwest and South under the Cellular One brand. The carrier counts 1.7 million customers and covers...
Editor's Note: Welcome to our Monday feature, Analyst Angle. We've collected a group of the industry's leading analysts to give their outlook on the hot topics in the wireless industry. In the coming weeks look for columns from Current Analysis' Avi Greengart, Compete's Miro...
AT&T Mobility said it put $50 million into data network preparations ahead of the launch of Apple Inc.'s iPhone, increasing network capacity and pushing its EDGE network from "good EDGE" to "fine EDGE," as the carrier put it. One of the major criticisms of...
Canada's Wireless Age Communications Inc. pulled the plug on its troubled technology distribution business.The Toronto-based company declared the bankruptcy of mmwave Technologies Inc., a subsidiary that distributes components for wireless, digital, optical and microwave use. Shimmerman Penn Title & Associates Inc. will serve as...
BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. saw its stock jump more than 20% in early trading after it reported a 76.5% increase in revenue from the same quarter a year ago. Meanwhile, smartphone rival Palm Inc.'s stock is down nearly 4% after it reported...
The Supreme Court ruled manufacturers can set minimum prices for products sold by retailers without automatically violating antitrust law, setting aside a 96-year-old ruling that the cellular industry and others argued was outdated.Michael Altschul, general counsel of cellphone industry association CTIA, agreed with the...
Apple Inc.'s iPhone goes on sale tonight at 6 p.m. The hype surrounding the device has reached a fevered pitch, as lines have begun forming outside Apple and AT&T Mobility stores in cities across the country. Indeed, the release of the iPhone is perhaps...
Dear Editor,Every now and then the Federal Communications Commission has to do something very important. In the next two weeks this FCC has a chance to protect the homeland and ensure billions of dollars of benefits to consumers. Or if spun into confusion by...
The 700 MHz debate has suddenly turned both interesting and nasty in the lead-up to next month's expected ruling by the Federal Communications Commission on auction rules.An AT&T Inc. official disclosed the top mobile-phone operator is mulling a play for a national commercial-public safety...
Sprint Nextel Corp. may be testing a "work-around" software patch from Qualcomm Inc. to avoid a government ban on the importation of new 3G handset models with certain Qualcomm chips. Qualcomm, meanwhile, is letting its network operator customers speak to the work-around issue, and...
MetroPCS Communications Inc. named a successor to current chairman and CEO Roger Linquist. The carrier said Linquist is expected to cut back on his schedule due to health reasons, and may make a decision on retirement by the end of the year. The flat-rate...
The wireless broadband industry opposes on interference grounds Globalstar Inc.'s push to have federal regulators consider an ancillary terrestrial component rule change that the mobile satellite service operator claims would put it on equal footing with competitors. Globalstar last year petitioned the Federal Communications...
Worldwide mobile content revenues are expected to surpass $44 billion in 2011, more than double the expected $20 billion in revenues generated this year, according to iSuppli Corp.The mobile market research firm said the growth largely will be driven by rising demand for mobile...
Leap Wireless International Inc. has signaled its commitment to deploying CDMA2000 1x EV-DO Revision A by choosing Alcatel-Lucent to build out the carrier's new spectrum acquired in the advanced wireless service auction and to upgrade its existing markets. Leap subsidiary Cricket Communications Inc., the...
The mobile phone industry told the Federal Communications Commission that marketplace trends stand against extending monopoly-era equal-access obligations to the competitive wireless industry."The commission should reject attempts to harm wireless consumers and burden wireless carriers with needless regulations whose only rationale is to raise...
